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Scotch Collops

Veal collops coated in egg and butter, served with a gravy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scotch Collops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Flatten the veal bits with a rolling pin and sprinkle with nutmeg.

  2. Dip the veal into the egg yolk and fry in butter until golden brown.

Make the sauce

  1. Remove the butter and prepare the sauce by mixing gravy, flour, butter, egg yolk, cream, and salt.

  2. Stir the sauce until it thickens, but do not boil.

Serve

  1. Serve the collops with the sauce poured over them.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a tender, browned texture when fried quickly.
Egg yolk
Coats the veal and enriches the sauce, helping it thicken smoothly and adding richness.
Butter
Fat for frying that gives the veal a golden brown crust and adds flavour.
Flour
Thickens the gravy-based sauce so it clings to the veal.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the sauce, softening its flavour.

The step that matters

Stir the sauce until it thickens, but do not boil. Egg yolk in the sauce can curdle or scramble if it gets too hot. Stirring gently over gentle heat thickens it smoothly without boiling.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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